


Attempt 13

by JayRayGee



Category: RWBY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:09:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27309697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayRayGee/pseuds/JayRayGee
Summary: After Ruby sacrifices herself to save all of Remnant, she learns something that turns her entire world view upside down
Kudos: 5





	Attempt 13

Salem was known for many things. Being a tyrant, a cruel woman, the mother of Grimm, and now, the killer of nearly every single person on Remnant. The last few years had been gracious to her, allowing her to finally achieve her goals. After the embarrassment at Haven Academy, she decided her plans needed to be adjusted. Instead of going for the relics, why not just go for the people? This way, the gods couldn’t ignore her if she was the only person left. Plus, it made gathering the relics much easier. So using her powers, she created an unstoppable army of Grimm that wiped Atlas off the map and reduced Vacuo to the sand on which it stood atop of. The change in attitude was so sudden and dramatic that even her ex-husband and now rival Ozpin was unable to adapt in time. Along with Team RWBY, JNR, and Qrow, the group watched as one by one, cities and towns fell to Salem, entire villages were eradicated, and people were killed in the thousands.

However, even with all of this, even with victory presenting itself to Salem, she was still unsatisfied. Her main reason was because there were those who still continued to fight, most of them being the hunters and huntresses. And while most of them went down easily some were harder to kill. In fact, Vacuo’s demise was fended off for nearly six months before falling, simply due to those who resisted the inevitable. However, as the world fell dark and life began to cease to exist, there was still one who fought. And as Salem rounded the corner to her throne room, she made eye contact with her.

Ruby sat atop her black crystal throne, clutching her right side. She was quite literally the last hope for Remnant, even if it meant sacrificing herself to do it. She had watched her entire family die, all her friends, and the world she had loved fall to a single person. It had been six years since their victory in Haven and Ruby was determined to make this her first since then. She was mortally wounded, a Grimm dealing a fatal blow to her side just a few moments ago. They both knew she had maybe a few minutes before succumbing to blood loss, but Ruby had made a promise to finish this fight.

“Hello child. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you.” Salem said in a mocking tone.

“Same goes for me. Although I could have gone longer without seeing your ugly ass face.” Ruby replied bluntly.

“My, that’s no way to speak to your elders. Didn’t Ozpin teach you anything about manners?” Salem asked.

“Yeah. He also taught me that you killed your four kids in cold blood.” Ruby responded, hoping for a reaction. In an instant, Salem’s mood changed from mocking to anger as a Grimm tentacle arm launched out from the spot she was standing. It had an arrow head tip that impaled Ruby in the right shoulder. She let out a whimper of pain as her body fell limp, probably due to some paralysis toxic embedded with the tip. As her limbs fell to her side, she could feel her body being picked up by the tentacle and being pulled towards Salem as she walked forward. After a few steps, Ruby and Salem were face to face.

“Say that again.” Salem said, pure anger in her eyes.

“Ozpin was a better parent and a better person than you’ll ever be.” Ruby replied, knowing just how to get under Salem’s skin. In retaliation, Salem pushed Ruby away with great force, the tentacle acting as the guide. She slammed Ruby into a wall adjacent to her, causing Ruby’s back to break and massive internal damages. If there was any aura left within her, it was long gone now. She then dragged Ruby along the wall, her head smashing into each torch holder, her head eventually splitting open slightly. Finally, she moved Ruby to the center of the room before throwing her back first through a window, the broken shards of glass impaling her back.

Ruby was now dangling out over the Land of Darkness, hundreds of thousands of Grimm were congregated below the Evernight Castle, almost like they were awaiting a show. Directly below the castle was a giant pool of Grimm, the largest one in the land. Ruby meanwhile could no longer feel anything below the waist and her arms, she was bleeding badly from the back and head, and could feel her organs beginning to die. Still, she was being supported by the tentacle arm as it burrowed itself into her shoulder.

Soon, Salem appeared on the other side of the broken window, staring directly at Ruby.

“After all you went through, watching you friends and family die, watching everything you loved be destroyed or killed, I have to ask: Why did you think for a second you even had a chance to defeat me?!” Salem asked.

Ruby smirked, her mouth beginning to fill with blood. “Simple. I never needed to defeat you Salem, I just needed you to forget.”

“Forget what?” Salem asked, beginning to show signs of fear.

“This.” Ruby replied, her silver eyes suddenly activating, and everything clicked for Salem. The tentacle arm embedded in Ruby’s shoulder shriveled up, causing it’s grip to loosen and Ruby began to fall, her eyes still glowing. Salem screamed both in fear and anger as she now realized what Ruby was doing, effectively calling everything within her power to try and stop the young adult, but it was too late.

As Ruby fell towards the Grimm pool back first, she made sure to keep her head turned to make sure she was going to hit her target. Meanwhile, the Grimm tried but failed to stop Ruby, her silver eyes acting like a shield. Right before she landed in the pool, she looked back towards the castle and winked, almost as if to give Salem the middle finger. She landed back first into the pool, the area around her beginning to glow slightly. As she sunk deeper into the pool, she could feel the muck slowly invading her body, causing massive amounts of pain to the remaining parts of the body Ruby could feel.

At the same time, the power of her silver eyes grew exponentially, and Ruby knew what she had to do. As the muck invaded her essential organs, she let out a muffled scream and her silver eyes exploded with power. The pitch-black pool of grimm quickly changed to a white color, brighter than the sun. Salem stopped screaming, knowing there was nothing she could do as the pool exploded with the force of a planet killing meteor. The explosion shot hundreds of miles into space and caused a giant wave of similar size to begin to expand from the pool at 1000 miles per hour. This wave wiped every living thing off in it’s path out of existence. Plants, people, Grimm, all of it was going to be eradicated. And as the wave began to move, Ruby knew that her job was done.

/

/

/

/

Deep in the woods, surrounded by hundred-foot-tall cedar trees sat a relatively small cabin. It was similar to that of a large hunting cabin with a small foot path leading to the door, a few flowers surrounding the cabin, and a small bonfire pit adjacent to the house. The forest floor was full of life, with small animals scurrying around, mixed with medium sized herbivores walking around. There was a small pond a few hundred feet from the cabin that was full of both aquatic and amphibious animals. To most, this was paradise

As the sun began to shine through the trees, the door to the cabin swung open and a small, old lady appeared in the doorway. She appeared to be in her mid-to-late nineties but was still full of life. In one hand she held a basket and in the other, an axe. She knelt down to pet the bunnies and squirrels that had greeted her at the door before beginning to walk down a small foot path that winded through the trees. As she made her way down the path, she looked in every which way, waving at the wildlife that hurried by.

As she passed by the pond, something caught her eye. Instead of the usual fish and frogs that were congregating at the shoreline, there was instead a young woman. As the old lady approached the girl, she wasn’t filled with fear or confusion, but rather, happiness and relief. The girl wore a black corset with red accents and laces on top of a black, long sleeve shirt. It was accompanied by a flowing black skirt that reached to just above the knee, complete with red hemming around the edges. She wore a belt on top of the skirt that had a few magazines and bullets, as well as a weird insignia. She had on a pair of thigh high boots with red soles and stocking. The old woman let out a chuckle. “Quite the fashion model.” She said to herself before kneeling down alongside it.

She began to gently nudge the girl's shoulder in an attempt to wake her up. “Child.” She said in a calm, soothing voice. “Child, you there?” She asked, now gently shaking her. Abruptly, the girl showed signs of life as her eyes, which were already closed, shut tighter, almost as if to shield herself from something. She began to rock back and forth, mimicking the actions of someone trying to avoid something. Suddenly, the girl's eyes shot open and quickly made eye contact with the old lady, who replied with a smile.

The girl responded by rolling over and jumping to her feet. She was now standing in about seven inches of water, confusion, and fear in her eyes.

“Where am I? Who are you?” She asked frantically as she scanned the area around her.

“My, quite the active one, aren’t you child.” The old woman responded.

The girl took note of the old woman’s language, and how she used certain words. “Salem? Is that you? I how the fuck are you alive?!” She questioned.

“Salem. That’s a name I haven’t heard in a few days. How is she?” The old lady asked.

“Don’t play stupid with me bitch! I just fucking killed you!” The girl yelled at the old lady.

“Hmm. I don’t remember dying in the last few thousand years.” The old lady said, still holding a friendly smile.

At this point the girl was more confusing than anything. Her brain was still trying to rack itself around what had just happened, and how she ended up here. _Is this Salem? Is she playing dumb? Is this another magical person that Ozpin never told us about?_ she thought to herself. “Yeah, you’re immortal, of course you don’t remember dying.” She said, trying to see if she could trick the old woman into revealing her true identity.

“I know I'm an immortal child. And so are you.” She calmly said.

“Wait… what?” The girl asked. “I’m not immortal. I just sacrificed myself like five minutes ago to save the world.” The girl continued, stopping to think for a second. “Wait, hang on a second! Where are we? You never answered that! Are you not dead from my silver eye explosion?”

“Oh sweetheart. Your last trip down must have been rough. Here, come inside, I’ll make you some tea.” The woman said, turning around and heading back towards her cabin.

Every fiber in the girl’s bones were telling her this was a trap and that she was going to die, but something about the old woman’s attitude made the girl question that idea. She stood in the water for a moment, pondering what she should do. She could easily run away to try and find someone else. Maybe make it to the nearest town and call for help. However, she realized that there wasn’t going to be anyone in that town, let alone someone to help. She realized that this strange woman was her best bet at finding help or figuring out where she even is. Plus, she looked really weak so if need be, the girl could easily overpower her.

Against her better judgement, the girl decided to follow the woman into her cabin because she probably had at least some of the answers that the girl needed. As the girl waded out of the pond, she noticed something peculiar. She wasn’t wet, at all. She had been standing in the pond for a couple minutes, the water completely covering her boots. Yet, as she left the pond, not only were her boots not wet, but there also wasn’t even water sticking to them, nor was water even leaving the pond. It was almost as if the water wasn’t real.

“Come along sweetheart.” The old woman called out as she entered the cabin. The girl cautiously followed, taking note of her surroundings and how they were perfect in every sense of the word. As she approached the cabin, she was caught off guard by the number of small animals that seemed to follow her like there were her pets.

“Where the fuck am I?” She girl said to herself as she opened the front door. Inside, the cabin had a cozy feels to it. There was a fire in the fireplace, although the girl hadn’t recalled seeing smoke coming from a chimney. In fact, she didn’t even remember seeing a chimney. The cabin seemed slightly larger on the inside, as the front door opened into the living room, which had a warm, comforting glow to it. Directly behind it was the kitchen, complete with a bar seating area where the old lady was standing over a pot. Adjacent to that on the left was a dining room and a workstation. On the other side of the room, there was a hallway that led to what the girl could only assume was the bedroom and bathroom.

Out of everything in the cabin, there were only two things that caught her eyes. Firstly, the workstation in the corner. There wasn’t a lot to it, only a large bulletin board and a few filing cabinets. It was what was the bulletin board that grabbed her attention. On the board were a bunch of pieces of paper that were thumbtacked to it. They were in order, labeled **Attempt 1, Attempt 2, Attempt 3,** and so on, all the way to **Attempt 13.** On each one, they each had a name for the attempt, a brief summary of what was being attempted, and a conclusion at the bottom. At the bottom of each one, the conclusion was filled out and stamped with a red “X”, except for the last one, which hadn’t been filled out yet. She thought about reading each one, but ultimately came to the decision that it might be intrusive.

The second thing that caught her eye was in the living room. Specifically, the coffee table. It seemed to be painted like a wooden table, but instead of having a rustic, handmade feel to it like the rest of the cabin, it was instead very tech heavy, with a large screen in the middle. It also had a holder attached to one side that held pens and stylus’, implicating that the screen was a touch screen. However, it was what was on the screen that caught the girl’s attention. There was a slider at the top of the screen that was set to **1x** , directly in the middle. To the left, there was a zoom function, also set to **1x**. At the bottom was what appeared to be a search function and a play button, but the girl couldn’t see what the search function was used for. But it was the middle of the screen that surprised the girl.

Across the entire middle was a map of Remnant, complete with city names and locations, as well as important landmarks. Curious, the girl pressed the play button, and was shocked to see a large white wall begin to move very quickly across the map, originating at the Land of Darkness. As the wall hit cities, the names and location markers would disappear. It was at this moment the girl noticed a tracker next to the play/pause button. It had an icon of a cartoon stick figure and was currently set to **46**. As the wall moved across the continents, the number slowly dropped erratically until, right as the wall cleared the map, it hit **0**.

“Here’s your hot cocoa, child.” The old lady said, surprising the girl.

“I thought you were making tea.” The girl questioned.

“I was, then I remembered you like hot cocoa more. So I made it just for you, with enough sugar to make you stay up for days.” The woman said with a smile, sitting down next to her.

“I never told you how I liked it.” The girl said, growing worried and confused at the entire situation. Before the old woman could answer, the girl continued. “Listen, I appreciate everything you’re doing for me. But I just had the wildest dream I need to get back to my group. What’s the quickest way to town? Have you heard or seen someone going by Ozpin? How far from here to the Land of Darkness?” The girl asked.

“Oh, honey.” The old woman said, putting down her cup of tea. “I was really hoping everything here would jog your memory, but I guess I have to do this the old-fashioned way.” The continued, before leaning over towards the girl.

“What do you mean, old-fashioned way?” The girl asked, moving back slightly to avoid the woman. However, the old woman moved faster than anticipated, and soon placed her right hand on the girl’s forehead, with her thumb placed in between her eyes, her middle finger right next to her left ear and her pointer in the middle of the two. “What are you do…” The girl started, before feeling her finger heat up on her head, soon, her mind was filled with a flood of new and old memories.

/

The old woman emerged from her bedroom; haven just woken up from her sleep. She wore only her nightgown and pajama pants, her hair cut short and sporting a grey color. As she made her way down the hall, she noticed that the young girl’s door was open, and her room was empty. This was peculiar as most days, the old woman woke up well before her, usually already having made breakfast by the time she awoke.

As she walked into the main room, she saw that the younger girl was sitting on the couch, looking towards the coffee table, head in her hands. She had on a plain tan t-shirt and grey sweatpants, and her hair, while disheveled, was a nice brown color and went down to her breasts.

“Good morning, honey.” The old woman said in a cheerful voice. The old woman making her presence seemed to slightly scare the younger girl, but she quickly responded.

“Oh. Hello Grandma.” She said, her voice muffled as she talked into her hands.

“Did you get a good night’s sleep last night?” The old woman asked as she got a pot of tea ready.

“Uhhh…” The young girl responded.

“Did you get ANY sleep last night?” The old woman questioned, already knowing the answer.

“No.” The girl responded shaking her head.

“I told you to go to bed when I went to bed last night.” The old woman responded, sounding disappointed.

“I know you did.” The girl said, finally taking her head out of her hands. “But I couldn’t sleep because I’m worried about Remnant.” She continued.

“Is it that bad already? I could have swore we only began that attempt a few weeks ago.” The old woman said, pouring her cup of tea.

“2 weeks, 5 days, 18 hours, and 38 minutes to be exact.” The girl answered.

“And how long for them?” The woman said, walking over to the couch and sitting down.

“I don’t know, 2,500 years? I’ve been fast forwarding and rewinding all night to see if there’s anything we can do to stop it.” The girl explained, rubbing her temples.

“Stop what?” The woman questioned.

“Oh, right. You went to bed before I found this out. Check it:” The girl answered. “If we pause it right here, it’s 55 AGW. Don’t ask why this is their dating system, I tried figuring it out for hours but gave up. Anyways, take notice of the landscape. Look at the political atmosphere, the social hierarchy, the class divide, everything. As it stands right now, it shows a lot of similarities to Earth, or Attempt 12, if you forgot. And we both know how that ended. The humans turned on each other after millennias of conflict, nuking each other until they were all wiped out in mere seconds, to us at least. For them, it was like four and a half hours.”

“You mean YOU nuked the humans. And if I remember correctly, you went down a lot earlier than I wanted you to.” The woman said with a smile.

“I did what I had to do. It was going to happen regardless; I just expedited the situation a few hundred years. That’s not the point, or at least, not fully. Let me explain: After the nukes were invented, it took about 120 years until _I_ went down there and forced the ending. We both remember that morning after. Now look at this:” The girl continued, moving the slider at the top slightly forward to **1.5x** , unpausing it and quickly re-pausing it. “This is just 20 years later. Look at everything now. Cities are in ruins, people have been killed in the millions, and everything our world has grown to is being destroyed by one person: Salem. Do you remember who that is?”

“I do.” The old woman said in a somber, disappointed voice.

“Well she’s been on a tear lately. I don’t know what caused this surge in activity from her but in just 10 years from this date, she will be responsible for the entire world being wiped clean. And not like when we wipe it clean so we can try again, a permanent wipe, a planet so inhospitable nothing can ever live there again.” The girl explained.

“So it will be the end of all of this? We won’t get any more attempts?” The woman asked.

“What? No. We can always hard reset a planet with a meteor or something, but it takes forever for life to come back, even at fast forwarding at full speed.” The girl went on.

“So what do you propose we do?” The woman questioned.

“I have to go down there. There’s no way around it. I spent all night looking for an alternative, changing small minute details in Salem’s and other people's lives to see if that had any affect, but everything still led to this point. She’s destined to cause the end of our attempt, for once, not by us.”

“But it’s still so early. The humans were around for over a million Earth years before you went down there.” The woman protested.

“I know it is. I really didn’t want to. But at this point, with the way things are headed, it’s the only option. I already found a host and I’m headed out after lunch.” The girl said, standing up.

“I hate when you call it “a host”.” The woman argued.

“Then what would you rather me call it cause a host is the factual name for what I’m doing.” The girl responded, heading for the kitchen.

“A soul. Call it a soul.” The woman said.

“Alright then. I found a soul to infect.” The girl said with a smirk.

The old woman sighed, looking back at the table. She rewinded time a few years and hit play, watching the events of the world unfold at about **10x** speed. “Who’d you pick?” She asked, not looking away from the screen.

“A girl. She was about 20 years before everything fell. Goes by the name Ruby Rose. Her mom was one of the purest souls I could find, real innocent and sweet from what I could tell. I was gonna pick her, but she was gonna die a few years after Ruby was born, so I picked Ruby.” The girl explained.

“Aww that’s sad. How’s she gonna die?” The woman asked.

“That’s the interesting part. She dies to Salem in an attempt to save the world because Ozpin told her she had a chance. Remember him?” The girl called out from the kitchen.

“Oh yeah. The dude that dies, gets revived for some reason then becomes a secretive asshole. Never really liked him.” The woman replied.

“Eh, I think he means well, but just has no idea what he’s doing. It doesn’t really matter in the end.” The girl said as she made a bowl of soup.

“I guess not.” The woman said as she continued to watch Remnant’s trials and tribulations. “Any other reason you picked out Ruby Rose? Also, love the name.”

“She’s going to become a huntress and try and save the world, even though it’s a losing battle. She’s actually going to be one of the last standing huntresses in the world, dying at the Last Stand of Beacon in 85 AGW. So if I “infect her soul” or whatever you want me to say, it shouldn’t be too hard to reset everything. Anyways, after I eat I’m going to get some sleep and I'll leave when I wake up.” The girl explained as she poured her soup into a bowl.

“Sounds like a plan I guess. I still think it’s a bit early though. I really did like this attempt.” The woman said, still looking at the screen.

“I did too. I really had high hopes for it all. I just think those gods we created were too harsh. Who knows, maybe if they just killed Salem, it would have been the one. Instead we only got 2500 years in and everything went to shit. The faunas were cool though, might wanna include that in a future attempt.” The girl rambled as she inhaled the food. “What about you? What’s your game plan while I’m gone, saving and resetting everything again?”

“Well we’re running low on firewood, so I was planning on cutting down a tree to get some more today. I’ll probably head out right after you do.” The woman explained, finally looking up at the girl.

“Just don’t hurt yourself.” The girl said, finishing up her soup and heading towards her bedroom.

“Don’t leave without saying goodbye.” The woman called out.

“I won’t!” The girl shouted from down the hall before the sound of a door closing could be heard.

/

The girl slowly faded back into reality, her mind moving at a thousand miles a minute as she tried to process what she had just learned. The old woman was still on the couch but was now staring at the screen on the coffee table, watching the world grow increasingly void of life. The woman turned back towards the girl and noticed her becoming more lively.

“Aw, good. You’re back. You’ve been out for a while. I was beginning to worry that I did something that messed you up.” She said with a smile.

“I… uh… “ The girl mumbled, struggling to form coherent thoughts.

“You probably have a ton of questions, judging by your reaction. We’ve all the time in the world, so ask away.” The woman said, lounging back on her side of the couch.

The room was silent for a minute as the girl tried to think of something to ask. Finally, she spurted out a question. “So, I’m not Ruby Rose?”

“You can be if you want. It shouldn't be too hard to start calling you by that name, if it helps get you used to everything.” The woman replied.

“But I’m not her physically, right?” The girl questioned.

The old woman thought about it for a second before answering. “Yes and no. When you first went down to Remnant, you took over her soul when she was just a child. You absorbed her thoughts, her memories, her beliefs, everything. You became part of her. However, at that time, you were just the little voice in her head. However, as she grew up, you slowly became her physically. When she learned something new, you did as well. Whenever she learned how to walk, run, and jump around while wielding at oversized scythe, you also gained those abilities. Eventually, she became just that little voice in _your_ head. If you’re asking if you were ever truly Ruby Rose, the answer is no. She always existed within you, whether you were aware of her or not. When you had those thoughts about giving up, going home, and just accepting defeat, that was Ruby Rose telling you that. She was destined for greatness, but not victory. Only you were.” The woman explained. “Sorry if that was confusing.”

“No, you’re good. It was a little bit but I’m beginning to understand. I still have a bunch of questions though.” The girl responded.

“Ask away.” The woman said.

“How does time work up here? Out of everything that I’ve experienced here, that’s the most confusing right now.” The girl asked.

“How did time work on Remnant?” The woman retorted.

“Uh, well there was 24 hours in a day.” The girl said.

“What’s an hour?” The woman asked.

“An hour is 60 minutes.”

“What’s a minute?”

“60 seconds.”

“What’s a second?”

“1000 milliseconds? What are you getting at?” The girl asked, slightly annoyed.

The old woman smirked. “When we created this universe, we also created time. We created a loose standard for time, as well as all the names of everything. Down there, time is an important part of the social construct, as you just demonstrated. However, up here, time is a lot more loose fitting. Time is whatever you want it to be. Take for example the day cycle. The sun is up half the day and down the other half, giving us a full day.”

“How long is a day?” The girl asked.

“That’s the beauty of it all. A day is whatever you want it to be. 16 seconds, 24 hours, 2 months. Whatever fits your mood. Think about it like this: To have a 3d object, the move in 3-dimensions, hence the name. Up/down, left/right/, and forwards/backwards. We exist in that next step up, the fourth dimension, where we move along a fourth axis, that being time. We can move forwards and backwards through it, making it obsolete to us.” The woman replied.

“That’s… kinda confusing.” The girl responded.

“You’ll get used to it. It helps not to think about it for too long, especially right now since you just got back.” The woman said.

“Okay, I guess.” The girl said, moving on. “What’s the deal with that bulletin board over there? Why are there 13 attempts and what even are they?”

“That child is our goal. Our mission if you will.” The woman said proudly.

“Which is?” The girl asked.

The woman sighed. “We’re trying to create a perfect universe, similar to what it’s like up here.”

“Why don’t we just do that?” The girl asked.

“Because we already have. We created this area around us and made it just to our liking. So we know what it takes to create it and how it looks, so now we’re trying to see if we can make it appear on its own instead at our hands. So we create these worlds, change a few variables, add some problems, create life and see if that life can create a paradise like what we have up here.” The old woman explained.

“But so far it hasn’t worked.” The girl said, connecting the dots.

“Unfortunately, no. We tried a dozen different combinations and we’ve gotten close a few times, but never succeeded.” The woman said with a sigh.

“And each time we fail, I have to go down there and reset it.” The girl said, beginning to understand.

“Yeah. And this most recent failure was attempt 13, codename, Remnant.” The woman said, getting up from her seat and walking over to the bulletin board.

“Speaking of the attempts, do you have to do that forced memory unlock thing every time I go down there?” The girl asked.

“No. This is actually only the second or third time I’ve done it. Usually, you either remember immediately or after a few minutes. Sometimes, you have to go on a walk or take a nap for you to remember at least some of who you really are. The only times I’ve forcefully unlocked your memories is when you reset was especially rough or difficult or hard on your mind. Judging by the way you acted when you got here and how little you actually remember; I can take it that Remnant’s reset was your most strenuous one yet.” The old woman said as she stamped a red “X” on the sheet of paper that said **Attempt 13.**

“Yeah, it really was.” The girl said, rubbing her head as she remembered how painful the Grimm pool was. “Listen, I still have a ton of questions and I’m still generally kinda confused on a lot of other stuff, but I’m also really exhausted. So if you don’t mind, I’m gonna go lay down and take a nap.”

“By all means, please. You’re gonna need your energy because we have to start on attempt 14 soon. Plus, you might remember more while you sleep, meaning you won’t have as many questions when you wake up.” The old woman said.

“Alright, sounds like a plan… uh….” The girl said, trying to remember the old woman’s name.

“Just call me Grandma.” The old woman said with a warm smile, practically reading the young girl’s mind.

“Okay Grandma, see you in a bit.” The girl replied, returning the old woman’s smile before heading down the hall and into her bedroom, flopping onto the bed and quickly falling asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> If you got this far, I applaud you.
> 
> Writing this story started out easy and got progressively more difficult as time went on before I realized far too late that I was in way over my head. Writing a god complex that dealt with time and death was more than I had bargained for and proved to be more complicated and confusing than I was originally expecting. I gave it my best shot so if it seemed confusing, I do apologize.
> 
> Anyways, more stories are coming, including one I’ve been working on and perfecting since 2017. I’ll try to be more persistent and get back to a regular posting schedule soon as I’m getting back into my old writing moods I used to have.


End file.
